Lost and Found Hearts
by Sonic Phantom
Summary: With Christmas around the corner, Sonic has a special present for Zelda. But what happens when someone else gets involved and almost tries to ruin it for the blue hedgehog? Is it out of jealousy or does someone else have an interest Zelda?


**LOST AND FOUND HEARTS**

**- Smash Mansion -**

It was Christmas Eve at the Smash Mansion. Most of everyone as in their rooms preparing for the most important day that was to come the next morning.

We focus inside one room, where we see Sonic the Hedgehog wrapping up a Christmas present for someone.

Sonic was sitting on his bed, as he examined the fully wrapped gift in front of him. The nice green wrapping along with the red bow tie on the top. This looked liked a fully wrapped Christmas present. Sonic slowly moved the box around to see that everything was put together and to make sure that his gift was fully wrapped. He soon smiled afterwards.

"Great! Now, to put on the finishing touches." Sonic looked to the side to see the nametags next to him as he picked one up and placed it on top of the gift. He grabbed a pen and wrote down his name besides the word FROM. Then he wrote another name as to give this gift to someone else.

Z-E-L-D-A

Princess Zelda. This was a gift to her. What could the blue hedgehog have possibly gotten the Hylian Princess? Whatever it was, Sonic's heart seemed to be excited about something. He carefully placed the name tag underneath the neatly wrapped bow tie. Now it was finished. Now all Sonic had to do was wait until morning so that he could give it to her.

The door soon knocked. Sonic had heard this. "Who is it?"

"Yo, it's me. Can I come in or what?"

Sonic smiled when he recognized that voice. "Sure thing, Falco. Come in!"

The door opened, revealing to be Falco Lombardi: Ace pilot of the Star Fox team and one of Sonic's friends. "Man, what a day. You won't believe the day I had."

"What did you do?" Sonic asked. "Christmas shopping?"

"You got it. Peppy had sent me mail earlier this week, and reminding me that if I don't get a gift for Kat soon, she would get jealous and start sending me a ton of mail. And let me yell you, I didn't want THAT to happen. So I went out to find something that I know would keep Katt satisfied."

"Oh really?" Sonic grinned with interest. "And what did you get her? A card?"

"You're half correct." Falco replied. "I also got her a sapphire ring."

"A sapphire ring? You mean like an engagement ring?" Sonic wondered.

"No!" Falco stopped him. "It's nothing like that. Besides, engagement rings aren't made of sapphire. At least, I don't think they are."

"Oh. Well, do you think she'll like it?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not much of an expert on girls, but I know they love jewelry, so I'm sure that will keep Katt off my back instead of just sending her a card every year." Falco said sighing in relief. "So how about you?"

Sonic held up a red and green Christmas card in his hand. "I sent most of these cards out to my friends back home. It's not much, I know, but at least it's a way to say Happy Holidays to my friends."

Outside of the room, Marth was walking across the hallway until he overheard Sonic talking to Falco from inside the room. Marth stopped to peek and listen.

Falco nodded as he noticed the present that was sitting in front of Sonic. "Who's the present for? One of your friends back home?"

Sonic wagged his finger. "Nah. This present is for someone special."

"Oh really?" Falco mused. "And who might that be?"

Sonic smiled. "Princess Zelda."

Marth gasped quietly when Sonic mentioned Zelda's name. This caught his attention even more as he listened in.

Falco seemed surprised. "Zelda? Any reason why you think her as a special person?"

Sonic's face started to turn red as he blushed. Falco noticed the blushing on his face and quickly caught on.

"Ah, I get it now." Falco smirked. "You have a certain crush on the princess."

"N-No I don't." Sonic shook his head nervously.

"Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone. You can trust me!" Falco said.

"You...sure?" Sonic asked.

Falco nodded. "Of course. I'm your man."

Sonic saw that Falco was telling the truth, so he took a deep breath before letting it all out. "OK. I like Zelda. She's different from other girls I met before coming here."

"You mean from your world?" Falco wondered.

"Yeah." Sonic nodded. "But I find them mostly as my friends. And Amy...well, she's had a crush on me ever since the first time I saved her from Dr. Eggman. She's been after me since the beginning. I don't know how she would react if I had an interest in someone else that isn't her."

Falco just shrugged. "Just ignore her. That's what I'd do."

Sonic looked up at him. "Are you sure that's the best idea?"

"Totally." Falco answered. "Katt always use to follow me around. But even then, I don't pay much attention to it. She understands that, and we remain good friends whenever she's not bugging me."

That's how Sonic would remember his times with Amy chasing after him. "Well, Amy is only my friend. I don't have that same interest as her."

"Then you're good to go. You basically have to make your own decisions. And IF Amy ever asks you if about it, you just have to tell her the truth. She might not like it, but she'll probably understand in time."

Sonic smiled and nodded. "I can do that."

"So getting back onto the subject with Zelda..." Falco turned his attention back to the gift wrapped present. "What did you get her?"

"I got her a special music box. It contains music that isn't found anywhere else other than Hyrule's gift shop. You wouldn't believe how much it cost me just to get this." Sonic said, sounding very grateful.

"I hear ya." Falco replied. "Can I see it?"

Sonic retorted with a wave of his finger. "Sorry, but I'm only showing this to Zelda. I'm going to give it to her on Christmas day tomorrow when everyone starts opening up presents."

"Keeping it a secret, eh? Sounds cool by me." Falco smirked.

"That's not all, though." Sonic added. "I'm also going to ask Zelda out at the special pancake house that's opening tomorrow on Christmas day and have breakfast there."

"Asking her out on Christmas day? You're one lucky hedgehog." Falco pointed out.

"Aw shucks." Sonic chuckled in embarrassment. "You're embarrassing me."

Marth had overheard everything that Sonic had confessed to Falco. It made him furious that Sonic was asking Zelda, the Hylian Princess, and on CHRISTMAS of all days. It sounded like a joke to him because Sonic was a hedgehog and Zelda was a Hylian. Those two species don't mix.

The Altean prince also had a crush on Princess Zelda. And he had been wanting to ask Zelda out ever since she was invited to the tournament. But he never had that chance because the timing wasn't right. He figured that if he waited on a special day, then it would assure him access to Zelda's heart. And besides, since when did Sonic have an interest in Zelda all of a sudden? Whatever the case, it sounded like Sonic was trying to steal Zelda away from Marth.

Well, that wasn't going to be the case. He was now determined to stop Sonic before it was too late. And he had an idea on how to do that.

* * *

It was late at night, and most of the smashers were fast asleep. Christmas was tomorrow morning and most of everyone went to bed early so that they would be rested up.

We cut to Sonic's room, where he was snoozing peacefully. His gift was lying next to the window that was near his bed. Which would make sense, because he would remember it's there and give his gift to Zelda the following Christmas morning.

The door of Sonic's room started to creak open. Marth stuck his head inside to see all was quiet in Sonic's room. Seeing the blue hedgehog was asleep, Marth slowly creaked the door open to let himself in. He stepped inside and looked around the view of the room for a moment until he saw the neatly wrapped gift near the window. Setting his sights, Marth slowly made his way towards it. He made soft footsteps so that he wouldn't do something as to wake Sonic up.

When he finally approached it, the blue-haired swordsman reached out towards the gift and placed his hands on the side of it. He then slowly lifted the present in the air and examined it, despite the room being dark. He could still see, though, and saw the name tag that was on top of the present.

To: Princess Zelda

From: Sonic the Hedgehog

Marth saw the names and smirked. "Gotcha."

"Hey!"

Marth quickly turned his head around, thinking that he had been caught. However, there was no one there. He looked down when he saw Sonic turning in his sleep.

"That's my chillidog...give it back..." Sonic said, obviously in a dream about chillidogs.

Marth's heart had skipped a beat there for a moment as he took a slow deep breath. For a moment, it had looked like Sonic had noticed him with his gift under his arms. Thankfully for him, that wasn't the case. Now would be the best time to get out of here before something actually happened. He quickly made his way towards the door, but stayed quiet so that he wouldn't make a lot of noise. When he reached the door, he slowly turned the knob, opened the door, and quickly made it out of the room before closing the door behind him.

Marth was relieved to make it out of there. Now that he had Sonic's gift, it was time for the second part of his plan.

* * *

Jigglypuff, the round pink Pokemon, yawned as she poured a carton of milk and into a plastic cup. Jigglypuff had gotten up because she had gotten thirsty and wanted to drink something refreshing before going back to bed. After filling the plastic cup with milk, she set the carton down and smiled as she picked up the cup and started to drink some milk.

As Jigglypuff was drinking her milk, she overheard footsteps coming from the stairway, which caused her to stop what she was doing and took a look to see Marth appearing downstairs. She had noticed that Marth was carrying a present underneath his arms as Marth headed out the front door. Jigglypuff tilted her round head in confusion. What was Marth doing up at this time of night? And more importantly, why did he have Sonic's gift with him?

Marth was outside, and needless to say, it was cold outside. And it had also snowed too. Well, to be fair, it had snowed earlier this past week, so the snow was all around the Smash Mansion. Marth decided to use this as his advantage as he placed the gift deep into the snow. Once it was as far down as it could go, Marth had covered the entire present up with snow, making it so that Sonic's gift would be covered up and no one would be able to find it.

Marth had covered every inch of the present as good as he can with snow. Once he was finished, he smirked. "Too bad, Sonic the Hedgehog. Perhaps this will teach you a lesson not to mess up my chances with Zelda."

Jigglypuff was finishing drinking down her last gulp of milk as she set the cup down and yawned. She had finished her cup of milk and was about ready to head back into the living room to go to sleep on the couch. That was, until Marth had opened the door and headed back inside as he walked up the stairway again, not noticing Jigglypuff as he passed by the kitchen.

"Jiggly?" Now Jigglypuff was even more confused. What was Marth doing outside in the cold snowy weather? She had also noticed the present he had with him was gone. Where did that go? And what did Marth want with it anyway? All of these questions were too confusing for her as she decided to head back into the living room and go back to sleep, waiting for the magical day that was to come tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning came, and all of the smashers were awake bright and early. Samus and Olimar were in the kitchen preparing breakfast for the other smashers. Most of them had gathered around the living room, where the Christmas tree was at along with the fireplace that was burning brightly, keeping everybody warm.

"This is great!" Bowser said unusually. "I can't wait to see what my Koopa's got for me!"

Ganondorf looked at him oddly. "Not to intrude, but isn't Bowser Jr. your only son?"

"So what?" Bowser asked. "That doesn't mean I can't all my other Koopa's my sons, can I?"

Now that Ganondorf thought about it, bringing that point up was pointless. "Whatever. I don't want to be a part of your weird family, anyway."

Nana and Popo chatted with each other excitedly, anxiously awaiting the moment they can open their presents. Mario and Luigi were thinking of which presents of theirs they wanted to open first. Snake noticed a number of his presents were from Samus. I guess she thought she might've been a shopaholic or something. Kirby thought most of his presents contained food and was jumping up and down excitedly. King Dedede had a decent number of presents and was satisfied. Peach had a nice number of presents, as did the others. Meta Knight noticed a number of his presents were a little shorter than the others, but he didn't complain nonetheless.

Falco was sitting on the sofa with a good number of presents around him. Like the others, he also couldn't wait to open his presents. He was distracted, however, when a blue blur appeared in front of him. Falco saw it was Sonic, who had a terrified look in his eyes.

"Falco, have you seen my present? I can't find it! It's gone!" Sonic said hesitantly.

"Hold on there. Calm down, OK?" Falco said, trying to get the blue hedgehog to relax. "What's missing?"

Sonic looked to see Zelda not too far away, sitting next to Link. "It's my present for Zelda. I woke up this morning to bring it downstairs. But the moment I woke up, it was gone!"

"Did it happen to drop while you were asleep?" Falco asked.

"No. I set it up near my window last night so I would remember it when I woke up. But now it's not there! I looked all around my room, and it's not in there! It just vanished!" Sonic said, getting more worried than usual.

Falco seemed concerned about this. "Hmm, now that is a mystery."

"What is?" Ike asked, overhearing the conversation.

Falco looked over at Ike. "Sonic lost his present that he was going to deliver to-"

Sonic stopped him with a wave of his hand, telling him to keep it a secret. Falco got his message.

"...Uh, well it's a secret. He had it last night in his room, but then it just disappeared this morning. It's not even in his room." Falco explained without spoiling who the present was for.

Ike believed this to be odd. How did a present vanish overnight? "Sonic, what does this present look like?"

"It has green wrapping all over with a red bow-tie on the top. And it's squared shape, too." Sonic replied.

"All right. We're gonna need two groups to cover both sections of the mansion. Upstairs and downstairs.

"Ness and I will help out!" Lucas said. "We can look upstairs in our rooms."

"I'll help out, too." Peach volunteered. "I'm sure it's still around here."

"I'll help you out, Princess." Bowser added. "You shouldn't do something like this like yourself."

Mario and Luigi looked at each other. Naturally, they didn't trust Bowser, so they also volunteered to help out, just to be sure that they could keep an eye on Bowser.

"OK. So Ness, Lucas, Peach, Bowser, Mario, and Luigi will be covering the upstairs." Ike pointed out. "The second group will cover the downstairs. I will be one of them.

"Me and Fox will help out." Falco volunteered. "Right, Fox?"

"Right." Fox nodded.

"I'll help find Sonic's gift, too." Link said. "Marth, you want to help out, as well?"

"Oh, uh...yeah, sure." Marth nodded slowly. He was caught off guard by the question for a moment that he didn't realize what he had asked him until just now.

"All right. Falco, Fox, Link, Marth, and myself will check the area downstairs." Ike confirmed. "Is everyone clear?"

"Yeah." Link nodded. "We don't open anything until we find Sonic's gift."

So with that said, the two groups split themselves up, checking every part of the mansion from their respective places. Sonic looked on to see the two groups going their separate ways as Sonic went over to the sofa Falco was at and sat down. Samus and Olimar came into the living room with trays of biscuits, sausage, bacon, and along with glasses of orange juice. The two smashers set them down on nearby tables. Zelda, Dedede, Pikachu, and the Ice Climbers were happy that it was ready and thanked Samus and Olimar for making breakfast.

"Now this is what I call a breakfast!" King Dedede chuckled as he immediately chowed down on his sausage sandwich.

Nana and Popo took a bite out of their bacon sandwich together and smiled after gulping it down. "Yum! Thanks again!"

Olimar chuckled. "It's no problem at all."

Samus noticed the other smashers like Meta Knight, Snake, and Lucario quietly taking their biscuits and glasses of orange juice and sitting down to enjoy it. She looked over to see Sonic, whom was not his usual self. "Sonic, biscuits and orange juices are ready. You're welcome to have some."

Sonic shook his head. "No thanks. I'm not hungry anymore."

Samus raised an eyebrow at that comment. "Not hungry anymore? Did you plan to eat something else for breakfast?"

"Well..." Sonic wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her or not about what he was suppose to have planned today. "Not really."

Olimar tilted his head in concern. "What's the matter, Sonic? Are you OK? You're not sick, are you?"

"Nah, nothing like that." Sonic replied. "It's just that I don't feel like eating right now. That's all."

Samus crossed her arms. "That's not like you, Sonic. "You're always up and first in line whenever we cook breakfast. And you're always in a happy mood, too. What's going on?"

Sonic didn't respond. Zelda saw that he wasn't talking. It confused her at first, but then she had an idea on what it was. "I think I might know what's bothering Sonic."

Samus eyed Zelda. "Oh really? What is it, then?"

"Well, you see...Sonic was suppose to have a gift with him. But when he came downstairs, he said it was gone and it was no longer in his room. That's why some of the other smashers went to search for it on different sections of the mansion. They're probably still searching for it as we speak." Zelda explained.

Samus closed her eyes, thinking about how a present went missing. "I think someone must've taken it."

Sonic, Zelda, and the others that were around were surprised to hear something like this.

"What do you mean, Samus? Why would anyone steal my present?" Sonic asked.

"It's just a thought." Samus retorted. "If it's found here in someone else's room, then that person is a suspect for stealing."

Marth came into the room, as he stretched his arms. Zelda saw him and thought maybe they had found something.

"Marth, did you find it?" Zelda asked.

"Nope." Marth shook his head. "The others are looking, but no luck so far.

This news only disappointed Sonic, who lowered his head in shame. Olimar noticed this.

"Don't feel bad, Sonic. It's still a possibility that it can be found. Don't give up hope." Olimar said, trying to cheer Sonic up.

"Thanks, Olimar." Sonic said, smiling a little bit.

Marth knew what had really happened. Too bad for Sonic that he has no idea about it. And he was determined to keep it that way. "So, what did you guys find out?"

"We figured that if it's missing, then someone might've stolen it last night while Sonic was asleep." Samus replied.

Marth felt worried now. "Uh...really?"

"It's a possibility. If the present is found in someone else's room, then we might potentially reveal the thief as well." Samus added.

The blue-haired swordsman felt worried for a moment, but then realized that the present was not in the Smash Mansion, so he felt relieved. "In that case, we need to mark down certain people that might have a grudge against Sonic."

"But who? I don't know anyone that would hate Sonic." Zelda said.

"Hmm..." Marth glanced over to see Snake enjoying his glass of orange juice. "Snake! It must've been you!"

Snake did a spit-take as he eyed Marth. "What?"

"As I seem to recall, you have a certain grudge against Sonic. You even admitted that yourself during your first Brawl against him." Marth noted.

"Hey!" Snake growled. "I may not like Sonic, but that doesn't mean I would steal from him."

"Are you sure about that?" Marth crossed his arms. "Maybe you hated him so much, that you probably went to his room and stole his present right from under his nose just to make him feel bad."

Snake narrowed his eyes and got to his feet, staring eye to eye with Marth. "So you're calling me the Grinch now? I steal presents from people I dislike just to make them look bad? You're out of your mind!"

"That's enough!" Samus yelled.

Snake and Marth stopped fighting as Samus got their attention.

"Before we start pointing out names, Sonic's gift needs to be found first. Until that happens, Marth, I don't want you to start pointing at other people unless you have good enough proof to think that Snake did it." Samus told him.

Marth shook his head. "Fine. But the proof is right there."

"Actions speak louder than words." Samus reminded him. "So don't play the blame game until the truth has been revealed."

Marth just sighed. "Whatever."

Snake slowly sat back down and went back to enjoying his breakfast after that argument he had to put up with.

Zelda felt worried as she looked over at Sonic, whom pretended not to hear that argument a moment ago. It didn't show on his face, but Zelda could feel that Sonic was feeling more unnecessary pain inside.

A few minutes later, everyone had returned to the living room. Sonic saw them and approached them.

"Did you guys find it?" Sonic asked.

Ness and Lucas lowered their heads. "No. It wasn't in our rooms."

"I'm sorry, Sonic, but it wasn't in the hallway, nor was it in any of our rooms." Peach said slowly.

"We-a checked every a-room." Mario replied. "We-a couldn't find anything."

"Yeah...sorry." Luigi apologized.

"It wasn't downstairs either." Ike replied. "We checked in the kitchen and even the bathrooms, but we couldn't find it."

"Sorry, man, but it wasn't in our rooms either." Falco replied.

Sonic couldn't believe what he was hearing. The present just disappeared and now it's nowhere to be found. Sonic lowered his head in sadness. The present he had for Zelda was gone. And no one **(except Falco) **knew it was for her.

"We're really sorry, Sonic." Fox said, trying to sound optimistic.

Sonic sighed. "It's OK." He then started to walk away from the others and towards the front door.

"Sonic!" Zelda called out. "Don't you want to open your presents with us?"

Sonic stopped at the front door. "No. I just don't feel that Christmas cheer anymore. You can do whatever you want with them." He paused for a moment. "As for me, I'm going out for a run. Don't know when I'll be back." He turned the knob, opened the door and went outside, closing it behind him.

Silence filled the Smash Mansion. No had spoken for a minutes after Sonic had left.

"So...what do we do now?" Ike asked slowly.

"Well...if he doesn't want to join us for opening gifts, then we'll just have to do it without him." Samus answered.

"But Samus!" Zelda said out loud. "We can't just open presents without him! It's not Christmas without everyone together. And that includes Sonic."

"I'm sorry, Zelda." Samus said slowly, feeling a little bad herself. "I really wish there was a way we could make him feel better. But we've been holding off present unwrapping for a little while now. We can't hold if off forever."

"I know that." Zelda lowered her head a bit. "But..." The Hylian Princess wasn't sure what to say at this point. "Sonic..."

Samus sighed a little bit. "The only thing that we can do is to let Sonic be by himself for a while. Whether or not Sonic wants to open his gifts later on is also up to him. If he decides he doesn't want them...I'll take them back."

Zelda felt heart broken to hear that. This whole situation was probably hurting Sonic more than she was, and she couldn't imagine how bad Sonic was feeling. She could feel the pain in his heart. That gift he had lost must've been very important to him. She could only hope Sonic would get better soon. Otherwise, the loss of this gift might never recover him.

* * *

An hour had passed and it was still early in the morning. Everyone, besides Sonic, had opened their gifts and was enjoying the snowy day. Nana and Popo had gotten new mallets. Falco and Fox had gotten new blasters, DK and Diddy had gotten a boom box and were dancing to a funky beat that was playing currently. Link had gotten a new training sword to practice with. Snake had gotten a new cardboard box to hide underneath in so he wouldn't get cold. Jigglypuff had gotten a new scarf to keep herself warm as she skipped happily across the snow. Mario and Luigi had gotten a new sleigh and had decided to try it out at a nearby hill. R.O.B., Mr. Game and Watch, Pikachu, Red and his Pokemon also joined in on the fun.

Zelda, Samus, and Marth were building a snowman together. Zelda tried to be as cheerful as Marth and Samus were, but her worries about Sonic wouldn't leave. She still felt deeply concerned and worried about him at the same time.

Marth looked over to see that Zelda had stopped what she was doing. "Hey Princess, is something wrong?"

"Hm?" Zelda snapped out of it when Marth spoke to her. "Oh, no. Nothing at all."

"Well, in that case, help us with the decorations for the snowman, OK?" Marth asked with a smile.

"OK..." Zelda looked down to see the scarf that was for the snowman as she reached down and picked it up. She slowly wrapped it around the snowman. She took her eyes off it for one second, but then she saw something that surprised her.

There was Sonic, sitting on a nearby bench while looking up at the clear blue sky and all by himself. Perhaps now would be the best time to talk to him.

"Uh...you guys go on ahead and build the snowman without me. I need to be somewhere for a minute." Zelda said, leaving them behind.

Marth noticed her leaving. "Where is she going?"

Samus looked to ahead to see Zelda approaching Sonic. "Sonic returned. She must be wanting to talk to him."

Marth felt annoyed by this. Why does she want to talk with him for?

Sonic continued looking up at the sky, unaware of Zelda's presence as she approached him.

"Hello, Sonic. How are you?" Zelda greeted friendly.

Sonic turned to see Zelda, smiling at him. "Hey Zelda. What's up?"

"You, mostly. Can I sit beside you?" She asked kindly.

Sonic shrugged. "Sure. Why not?"

Zelda nodded as she sat down comfortably next to Sonic. "It's a nice Christmas day, isn't it?"

"It's pretty good, sure." Sonic replied, though he wasn't smiling.

Zelda looked down at Sonic, who was still not feeling himself. "Sonic, can I ask you a question?"

"What is it?" Sonic wondered, looking at her.

"This gift you had...is special it to you?" Zelda asked.

Sonic was afraid he would get asked about this sooner or later. Oh well, might as well get it over with. "It was special. Really special. The gift was for someone I really care about a lot. But now that it's gone, I might as well forget about it. You wouldn't care, anyways."

"Why would I not care?" Zelda asked. "I'm actually rather curious as to who you care. Can you tell me?"

Sonic didn't answer her. He just remained silent, not revealing anything to the Hylian Princess.

"Sonic. Please talk to me. I want to know who this person is you really care for." Zelda said, almost pleading.

Sonic could see the concern in Zelda's eyes. "I'm sorry, Zelda. But I'd rather keep it a secret and not tell anyone about it."

Zelda could see that Sonic wasn't talking. "I...understand. It's your right not to talk about something if it bothers you. I won't ask about it anymore."

"I...lost it."

"Huh?" Zelda was confused.

"I had the gift with me, and now it's just vanished! I don't know what could've happened to it! If someone did steal it then why? Did I do something wrong?" Sonic asked.

"No." Zelda shook her head. "Don't place the blame on yourself, Sonic. It's not your fault."

"Maybe it isn't, but..." A single tear started to form in his eye as it rolled down his face. "I don't know why anyone would do this."

Zelda saw that Sonic was really upset about this. "Sonic, please don't cry."

"I'm not..." Sonic smiled a little as he wiped the tear from his face, holding himself back from crying because it wasn't in him.

Zelda lowered her head a bit. "Sonic. You shouldn't feel sad. It's Christmas, a time where we should be happy and enjoy ourselves on this special day. Christmas isn't always about gifts or presents. It's about spending time with people that are close to you. We might not be family, blood-wise, but we're a family nonetheless."

Sonic listened to Zelda's words for a moment before starting to smile. "You're right, Zelda. I shouldn't feel sad. It's Christmas, after all."

Zelda started to smile back. "That's the spirit."

Jigglypuff continued to skip happily across the snow. A few leaps later, Jigglypuff tripped over and fell face-first on the snow. She rolled herself back up.

"Jiggly..." Jigglypuff puffed her cheeks and kicked the snow she tripped across. She kicked part of the snow away, but when she did that, she noticed something that caught her eye. Something was buried inside the snow and she decided to dig it out.

Back with Sonic and Zelda, the blue hedgehog wanted to ask something of the Hylian Princess. "Hey Zelda? There's something I've been wanting to ask you, but I forgot about it until now

"What is it, Sonic?" Zelda wondered.

"Um..." He was feeling nervous about this. "How would you..."

"Jigglypuff!"

The two turned their heads to see Jigglypuff approaching them by carrying something over her head.

"Hey Jigglypuff! What do you have there?" Zelda wondered.

Sonic recognized the green wrapping and the red bow tie on the top. "It's...that's the present! Jigglypuff found it!"

Marth and Samus had overheard what Sonic shouted. Samus was happy while Marth was shocked to find this out.

"So the present was outside the whole time, eh? I wonder how it wound up out here in the snow..." Samus wondered.

Marth lowered his head, thinking that maybe he shouldn't keep it in anymore. "Samus..."

"Hm?" Samus turned her attention to him. "What is it, Marth?"

"There's...something I need to tell you." Marth told her.

Sonic was feeling happy again knowing that his gift was found. "Thanks Jigglypuff! Where did you find it?"

Jigglypuff pointed at the snow she had tripped over a little bit back. "Jiggly Jigglypuff!"

"Uh...sorry, but I don't speak Pokemon." Sonic replied sheepishly.

Zelda took a look at the present up close with her hands. She gasped when she saw the name tag. "This..."

Sonic turned to see what Zelda had in her hands. "Oh, uh..."

"This present is for...me. And the name tag says it's from you..." Zelda said. She paused for brief moment. "Can I open it?"

"Well, yeah, I hope you'll like it." Sonic smiled.

Zelda slowly started to unbox the present with her hands. Starting with the wrapping, followed by a by taking the bow tie of the present. It soon became unclear and Zelda saw that it was a box. She slowly flipped it open, revealing it to be a figurine of a dancing woman while spinning around to sweet music that sounded familiar to the Ocarina of Time.

"Sonic...it's beautiful. W-Where did you get this?" She asked.

"It's a music box. I got it at Hyrule's gift shop. Getting there was no easy feat. So I asked Master Hand to lend me a hand **(no pun intended) **to transport me to Hyrule so I can get it just for you. The price for it was also pretty big, so I did some errands around Hyrule, believe it or not, to actually earn enough Rupees for it. Some things I did weren't exactly great, mind you. Like hunting for glowing bugs for a creepy girl who's into bugs for her Ball." Sonic shivered at that memory. "I also did some work for the Gorons, which wasn't as bad as bug hunting, and they were pretty fun to hang around with. The Zora's...well, I'd rather not talk about what I did there. Let's see...Oh! I helped out at the Malo Mart in both Hyrule Castle Town and Kakariko village. And I also-"

He was then caught by surprise when Zelda hugged him. Sonic was at a loss for words.

"Sonic...Thank you. This was very thoughtful of you. I'm really happy." Zelda said, smiling happily. She soon let him go so he could breathe.

Sonic blushed again in embarrassment and smiled back. "Thanks. I'm glad you liked it."

"But there's one thing that confuses." Zelda said.

Sonic stopped smiling. "What is it?"

"How did your present wind up outside?" Zelda wondered.

"Hmm..." Sonic was confused. "That is a good point." The blue hedgehog noticed that Jigglypuff was still there. "Jigglypuff, do you know how it winded up out here?"

"Jiggly." Jigglypuff shook her head in reply.

"I someone can answer that for you." A voice said.

Sonic, Jigglypuff, and Zelda looked over to see Samus and Marth approaching the trio.

"Samus? Marth?" Zelda was slightly confused. "Do you know how the present wound up out here?"

Samus glanced her eyes at Marth. "Go ahead. Tell them the truth."

Marth took a deep breath before speaking. "I...I did it. I went into Sonic's room last night and stole his gift."

Sonic, Jigglypuff, and Zelda were shocked to hear this confession. Samus wasn't surprised because Marth had told her earlier.

"Marth? Y-You did it? Why?" Zelda asked, unsure of what to make this.

"It was because...because Sonic was really interested in you." Marth explained. "He had plans to take you out to some sort of pancake house tomorrow and was also going to give you a gift, which was the music box. It angered me inside because..."

"Because what?" Zelda wondered.

"I...was in love with you, Princess Zelda." Marth replied slowly.

Zelda's eyes widened in surprise. "W-What?"

"To be perfectly honest, I had a crush on you back when you first invited to the tournament. I didn't take that much interest in you back then, but overtime, you suddenly drew my interest, and I wanted to get to know you a little better. But I never had the right time due to the tournament and, us being busy and everything that was going on. I never got that chance." Marth said, lowering his head a bit. "When Master Hand announced new smashers that would come to join us in the next tournament, I was skeptical, but didn't pay much attention to it. And then last night, I overheard Sonic in his room talking with Falco about how much interest he had in you, and to be honest...I grew jealous. I needed to figure out a plan to make sure I would sabotage Sonic's interest by stealing his gift for you and hiding somewhere where he couldn't find it. Which lead me to the snow."

A moment of silence occured. No one was sure how to take this confession. Sonic, Jigglypuff, Zelda, and even Samus was kinda surprised to hear this.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what I did. Sonic, I'm sorry for stealing your gift and hiding it from you. I don't think it matters anymore, but...can you forgive me?" Marth asked.

Sonic thought about it for a short moment before smiling. "Yeah. Of course I forgive you."

"Y-You do?" Marth wondered.

"Of course. You're not a bad person, Marth. Besides, it's the season of Christmas. We're not suppose to let the bad times take us over. We're a family, and even though we're not related by blood, I consider us to be family. So what do you say? Friends?" Sonic asked, extending his hand towards the blue-haired swordsman.

Marth looked down at it for a long moment. A smile soon drew his face as he met his hand with Sonic's gloved hand. "Yeah. We're friends."

Samus watched the two make up before stepping in. "While I hate to rain on anyone's parade, your not off the hook yet, Marth."

Marth knew this and nodded slowly. "Yeah. I know. It's my fault and I'll take full responsibility for everything. I suppose you're going to report this to Master Hand and have me suspended from the tournament?"

Samus raised an eyebrow before shaking her head with a small smile. "That won't be a possibility. "First, you're going to apologize to Snake for falsely blaming him for the theft. Secondly, I'm going to put you to work tomorrow by shoveling all the snow that's piled up near the mansion as your punishment."

"Why tomorrow? Why not today?" Marth asked.

"Since this is Christmas, I'm going to hold it off for tomorrow. I want you to enjoy this day as much as I am." Samus told him.

"...All right." Marth understood with a nod. "That sounds fair."

"But I still have ways of punishing you today. How about we build up to 20 snowmen around the mansion? It'll be like having a Christmas party. Only with snowmen." Samus chuckled.

"I'm ready. Let's do it!" Marth smirked. "But first, I need to apologize to Snake."

"Go do that." Samus said. "I'm sure he'll be wanting an apology."

"Right." Marth nodded, as he went off to find Snake.

Samus smiled as she went back to the snowman that she and Marth held off, leaving Sonic, Zelda, and Jigglypuff by themselves.

"Well, it's good to see Marth having a smile again. Right, Zelda?" Sonic looked up at her.

"Yeah." Zelda nodded. She paused for a second. "Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"What Marth said earlier? Do you...really have have an interest in me?" Zelda asked him.

"Well, yes. I like you, Zelda. You're beautiful, you have a nice smile, and you bring lots of happiness around other people. It even brings me a smile onto my face, too!" Sonic said, proving his point.

Zelda blushed deep red and smiled back. "That means so much to me, Sonic. Thank you." She lowered herself to Sonic's level and planted a kiss on his head.

Sonic smiled warmly when she kissed him. But then changed his expression when he remembered something. "That reminds me...Zelda?"

"What's up, Sonic?"

"How would you like to go to the pancake house and have breakfast with me?" Sonic asked her.

"I would love that very much, Sonic!" Zelda smiled happily.

Sonic nodded back until he turned his head to Jigglypuff, who was still there with them. "Jigglypuff? Would you like to join us?"

"Jiggly, Jigglypuff!" Jigglypuff replied with a huge smile on her face.

"It seems we're not the only ones excited, are we?" Zelda asked with a smile.

"No kidding." Sonic said. "Come on, girls! Let's get going to the pancake house!"

The three soon set off to enjoy a Merry Christmas breakfast. And a happy new year, too!

* * *

**I want to wish a thank you to my friends of the Fanfiction Thirteen for getting me this far. If it hadn't been without your support, I would pretty much be ending up nowhere on Fanfiction right about now. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year, folks!**

**Please, read and review.**


End file.
